Pages - Menu

23 February 2012

That's Me! Best Organizational Blog 2011

The heavy hitters came out in full force with a race between the Center for Global Development, the World Bank and Oxfam (UK). Two group blogs against Duncan Green's From Poverty to Power ended in the triumph of the individual.

What stands out is that the blogs are of a much more academic bend. There were no nominations for blogs from the big NGOs. FP2P is an exception of sorts, but it is largely Green's wonky musings that makes it much more similar to CGD and Development Impact. This illustrates what I have observed to be a gap between the social media community represented by these nominees and the traditional NGO world.

Looking at the ABBAs as a whole, there are very few NGOs represented. That is in part due to this not being an NGO blog, but it also shows that there is a significant audience who does not care for or is unimpressed by what NGOs are offering through social media.

There are people who crave understanding more and getting into the wonky debates that are not limited to academics. Practitioners participate in the space just as fluidly, but are nearly always in a personal capacity. What links the nominees in this category is that they talk less about their organization and more about and and development at large. FP2P and PDT talk about themselves from time to time, but their bread and butter posts are looking at the industry. Is it possible that is why people go to read the blogs by these organizations?